Just go my first GoPiGo, and the motors are pretty much unusable, as 2 out of 3 commands will result in an IOError.
I took it apart and reassembled, hoping I made a mistake the first time, and still the same. When running basic_robot.py to test the movements, I have to try a few times before it starts moving, and then the same to stop. Rarely, it would take 4-5 commands in a row but normally it’s mostly IOErrors.
I’m new to this… any tests I should run to see what’s wrong? Could it be defective motors, or defective board? The Pi B+ is fine, I can run any programs there, as long as I don’t have to move the GoPiGo.
Please let me know what to do, I was getting very excited about it, today I also ordered ultrasonic sensors and the servo, but it does me no good if I can’t move it around.
Hi Karan, thank you for responding. I went through your checklist. I realized I still had firmware 1.1, and did the upgrade to 1.3 (with motors disconnected). The results were about identical, just that after the upgrade I don’t get the IOError messages anymore! (but still, the motors are not responding properly).
I’m running the Raspbian image from your website.
I tried both on batteries and with the pwoer adapter and the results are similar.
I usually see nothing on i2cdetect. Every now and then I’d see 08, other times just a 0c or 0d.
With “f”, I see 1.3 about one in 4 tries, otherwise -1. When I had 1.1, I’d see the IOError followed by -1
“v” when it works shows something in the 10.90-11.10 range (but mostly -1)
The robot commands work sporadically. After 3-4 tries, motors would start moving, then I have to try several times “x” to stop them.
With all these tests, while it usually works 1 in 4 attempts, there are times when it would work for a minute perfectly, others when I wouldn’t get a response for a minute or more.
Hope this helps you figure out what’s wrong, the motors, your board, or the Pi (B+). I just ordered a Pi 2 and I guess the only thing left is to see if it will work with that, and the Pi is broken now.